THIAOOUBA PROPHECY - CHAPTER 2

Atomic destruction

A single word can impart what was being reflected from the panel: ‘Desolation’. The street we were observing, piece by piece, was cluttered with ‘mounds’ generally arranged one behind the other. Some stood apart while others lay right in the middle of the openings to the buildings. Imperceptibly, the camera zoomed closer and I soon understood that these ‘mounds’ had to be vehicles - vehicles that were somewhat similar in shape to flat-bottomed boats.

Around me, the astronauts were attending to their desks. From each sphere emerged a long tube that descended slowly towards the surface. When the end of the tube touched the ground, a little cloud of dust rose, and I realised that the vehicles too were covered in a thick blanket of dust, rendering them formless and unrecognisable. Of course, the sphere that hovered above the river had its tube in the water. My attention was now riveted on the panel, for the scene was quite fascinating - one had the exact impression of being in the street.

My attention was especially drawn to a darkened place in the entrance of a huge building. I could have sworn something moved...

I also felt there was a certain agitation among the astronauts. Abruptly, and with a series of jerks, the ‘thing’ emerged into the light. I was horrified by what I saw. As for my ‘hostesses’, apart from some utterances spoken more quickly, and a few exclamations in which emotion could be discerned, I must say that they didn’t really seem surprised. However, what we were seeing so clearly on the panel was a horrible cockroach, about two metres long and 80 centimetres high.

The reader will certainly have seen, at one time or another, these nasty little insects we have on Earth, particularly in hot climates, living in cupboards and damp places.

You will agree that they are loathsome, but the biggest would be no more than five centimetres in length. Imagine then, one with the dimensions I have just described. It was truly an abomination.

The tube from the sphere began to retract, yet was still a metre from the ground when suddenly, the creature hurried forward to attack this thing which moved. Untrustingly, it stopped again, when from under the building, a veritable swarm of the creatures emerged, spilling one over the other. Just then, a ray of intense blue light beamed from the sphere and swept over the group, reducing it instantly to carbonised dust. A cloud of black smoke hid the entrance to the building from view.

My curiosity further aroused, I watched the other screens, but they indicated no problems. The sphere from the river was returning towards us, and the sphere on the hill retracted its tube, moved a little higher and lowered the tube again, along with a second cylinder above the sphere. I had guessed, of course, that the astronauts were collecting samples of soil, water and air. Being in Astral body, I couldn’t ask Thao any questions; in any case, she seemed quite busy conferring with two of the ‘hostesses. The spheres began climbing towards us and were soon ready to be ‘reabsorbed’ by our spacecraft.

When the operation was complete, Thao and the two astronauts mentioned took their places opposite their respective desks. Instantly, the images we received on the panel and screens changed completely.

I understood we were leaving when each one took her place. I observed that all the astronauts had a similar posture in their seats, which intrigued me. I later learned that a force field restrained them exactly as a security harness would have restrained a stuntman on Earth.

The suns illuminated the planet through a reddish fog. We had left by then, and I assumed we were following the contour of the planet, at the same altitude. In fact, we could see a desert-like area passing by, dissected by dry riverbeds that sometimes crossed each other at right angles. It occurred to me they might be canals, or at least had been man made.

The panel revealed images of a town apparently intact, then it disappeared and the screen went blank. The vessel had obviously gained speed in flying over the planet, as the images on the smaller screens, showing a lake or inland sea, flashed by quickly. Suddenly, several exclamations were heard and we immediately slowed down. The panel was turned on and presented a close-up of the lake. We stopped. We could clearly see a portion of the coast and, beyond some large rocks by the lake, we could make out cube-like structures which I imagined to be habitations. As soon as we had stopped, the spheres began their operations again, just as they had earlier.